Nancy Cycles!

"You got to be careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there." ... Yogi Berra

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Our Rainbow Rider group arrives

Friday & Saturday 7/19&20/2013

Vickie and I met for a nice long ride on Friday morning, and Susan would spend the day fishing and catching along the Boulder River. We got an early start for our ride - 8:00 -- to beat some of the heat and were successful until around 1:00. We stopped in at the Cinnamon Twisp in, well, Twisp for an iced tea and crumpet (the best cinnamon roll I have ever had) before facing our last hot ten miles home.

We had a few roadside attractions.

A "sculpture park" in the middle of farmland

Close of one of the sculptures

A well fortified mail box

This would suffice for the osprey nest I biked by in Superior and the mama screamed warning for me to stay away

Heron sculpture in the pond

The Heron has caught a fish

We returned home in mid afternoon, in time for a shower and to get ready for dinner with our group of cyclists who were gradually arriving for the weekend. Dinner was a cookout hosted by our friends Gay and Mary Ann who live here. We had our usual fun time together, and planned our rides and meals for the following day - Saturday.

Fourteen (14!) of us rode our bikes and four of us did other activities on Saturday. WOW! We had 18 women (Rainbow Riders) join this weekend event. Mazama/Winthrop is a long drive from Seattle, and when first thinking of doing this event, Gay and I thought we might get five or six rainbows come out for it. Each and all of the 18 who are here have not only had a fantastic time, they want to make this a annual event! We'll work on it.

The ride was along the Chewuch River, the route Susan and I did on my birthday, but in the other direction. We were smart to get an early start again, but the heat still caught up with us by noon.

Connie was the first rider to come upon the cows in the road

This is a free range area and Connie slowed way down when she came upon the herd of cows, one that was clawing its hoof at the ground as an intimidating gesture.

Lots of bike lined up at the falls for lunch

We rode up as far as the Falls and had our lunch before heading back and having a stop at a water hole for a swim. I got no photos of our glorious time at the little beach along the Chewuch River. We all took the plunge into the icy river and, once in, felt oh so refreshed. After lingering at the beach with a few more plunges for a while, we headed home.

On the way is a Cider Shop where only a few of us remembered to stop for some chilled cider. I was remiss in not emphasizing the stop and will be sure to do a better job of that next year!

Refreshing Cider stop for a few of us

Most of us gathered at the Rocking Horse coffee shop for (iced) tea and crumpets in Winthrop at the end of the route, sat at a picnic table in the shade and overlooking the river and watched a group of floating rafters. We parted with the plan to meet at Jill's cabin for dinner. And what a spread we had there! We had a few rainbows volunteer to cook, and the rest of us brought something to go with the main course.

The loud mixture of laughing, chatting and moving about was, as usual, music to my ears.

A few of us will go on a short ride tomorrow (Sunday), a few will hike or walk somewhere, and a couple will ride over Washington Pass -- for the fun of it. We had our hugs and goodbyes for this time with our normal plan to ride again soon.